Have you ever woken up groggy, disoriented and not sure where you are? Whether alcohol induced or not?
That’s Canada today.
In theory the Liberal leadership race will be over March 9, but Trudeau is still acting as though he’ll be in power after that. His chosen successor, Mark Carney, has been making something of a fool out of himself. He’s claimed that most semiconductors used in US industry come from Canada. In fact, Canada is not even in the top 10 of semiconductor suppliers to the US. He’s also claimed that the economic success of Canada in the early 2010s is his responsibility, though Steven Harper (Prime Minister at the time) has made it clear that Carney had nothing to do with that.
The biggest surprise (lately) has been Justin Trudeau, Canada’s first post-nationalist Prime Minister, is now wrapping himself up in the Canadian flag and claiming he is the biggest Canadian nationalist since Captain Canada. Since Trump’s announcement of tariffs against Canada, patriotism is now the most important thing. Buy Canadian, support Canada, etc. This from a Prime Minister who has called the Canadian flag a symbol of racism and hatred. Anything to keep the Liberals in power.
Speaking of staying in power, Ruby Dhalla, one of the leadership candidates for the Liberal party was disqualified for…something. Not following the rules? Truth was, she was signing up too many new members and gaining support. That made her a threat to Mark Carney, so she was eliminated. For a party that claims to protect women and minorities, the Liberals sure don’t like women and minorities to get the idea they might lead the party.
Which brings us back to probably one of the most important parts of the Prime Minister’s job. Relations with the United States. To say they are poor right now would be something of an understatement. While President Trump has made clear that the fentanyl crisis is something Canada needs to address (along with military spending and Chinese influence), Trudeau seems to want to keep ignoring it and claiming there is no problem. One only had to look at the downtown of any major Canadian city to understand that it is a problem.
While Trudeau does not want to address the fentanyl crisis, he really, really wants to destroy Canadian industry to oppose Trump. He want lots of tariffs against American products but doesn’t want to admit that there are lots of tariffs already in place. Such as the dairy tariffs to protect the Quebec dairy industry that have been in place for decades. He would really like for Trump to place high tariffs on the Canadian oil industry, since that would shut it down without Trudeau having to do it. Furthermore, it is well known but rarely spoke of that trade barriers between provinces in Canada are higher than barriers to the US. So, each Canadian province trades more with the US than with each other. Removing the interprovincial barriers would go a long way to building up Canada’s economy, but once again, that’s not on Trudeau’s agenda.
Add to this that Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP has once again backtracked on his commitment to bring down the government and have an election. This is due to the fact that while the Liberals are up a bit in the polls, it is draining support for the NDP. So, likely no spring or summer election in Canada.
What is the reason for all of this? Simple. The Liberals and NDP in general, and Trudeau in particular have made it very clear that they are President Trump’s enemy. Trump has no reason to go easy on them. Rumors have it that there will be some increases in defence spending announced soon to try and placate Trump (purchasing AWACs aircraft, maybe more tanks and arctic patrol ships) but I don’t think that’s going to be enough. Until a new government is in place, Trump is going to keep trolling and messing with Canada.
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